The Pope’s ‘Gorilla’
Bishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus (1922-2006) was not known in Rome as “Il Gorilla” for nothing. He towered over most people in the Vatican Curia because he stood at 6’4” without shoes. He weighed over 200 pounds, and, like a sumo wrestler, tackled a deranged Bolivian painter who attempted to assassinate Pope Paul VI in Manila in 1970, and again in 1982 when he pushed away a deranged Spanish priest who tried to stab Pope John Paul II during a pilgrimage to Fatima. Most sources today credit Marcinkus, not Ferdinand Marcos, for saving the life of Paul VI on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport in November 1970.
During the beatification of Paul VI last year, a reliquary with his blood-stained vestments was brought out for veneration, proof that he was indeed wounded in Manila, but hid this from the public until his death. His private secretary, Pasquale Macchi, who fended off the would-be assassin in Manila, said in 1979:
“If you ask me what the pope’s most beautiful smile was, it came during the attempt on his life in Manila. After I pushed back the attacker, who had wounded Paul in the chest, fortunately not lethally, I turned to face the pope. I will never forget his sweet smile. And when he met my eyes it was as if he was somehow chastising me for the violence with which I pulled the assailant away to the police. It was as if he was enjoying a moment of inspired joy.”
All these conflicting primary sources remind me of the Akira Kurosawa film “Rashomon,” about a rape told in four different and conflicting points of view to make the viewer reflect on the difficulty of finding the truth. In the diaries of Ferdinand Marcos, he takes credit for saving the life of the pope although many eyewitnesses of the incident said, in hushed voices, that Marcos was too far away from the action to have delivered the history-making karate chop. On the evening of Nov. 28, 1970, Marcos wrote:
“There are many versions of who and how the would-be assassin was frustrated from killing the Pope with his dagger.
“The Manila Times, specially, has printed all kinds of stories including that of a Times photographer, Manuel Valenzuela, who allegedly bumped into the assassin, Benjamin Mendoza, and thus revealed the dagger under the box and the crucifix, but I did not notice any shout or alarm from him.
“And some prelates claim they stopped or beat up Mendoza.
“They may have done so after he stabbed at the Pope twice and I parried his arm and chopped it twice.
“Well, today (this afternoon at about 4 PM) Mendoza cleared up everything and said that the one who stopped or frustrated his attempt to kill the Pope was President Marcos, who ‘parried his knife thrusts twice.’ Apparently, Mendoza was aiming high in the body because he said he aimed for the neck of the Pope.
“KBS carried this statement of Mendoza in their News Watch at 10:15 PM and Doroy Valencia at 10:30 PM on his Saturday night commentary in Channel 5. I suppose the papers will carry it tomorrow.
“I attach the picture of the incident and the sworn statement of Mendoza.”
On Nov. 29, 1970, Marcos wrote:
“The Pope left at 7:15 PM after our departure statements. We are relieved because there were repeated reports of attempts against his life. Yesterday afternoon during the first open and public mass at Rizal Park, a man in a [sutana] was supposed to make another attempt. And a man, Camacho, was caught with an unlicensed .32 cal. revolver with ammo (nickel-plated) without license and no reason for his loitering at our box 15 minutes before our arrival.
“The crowd in Rizal Park was estimated to be one million, three hundred thousand. The crowd in this morning’s public mass at Quezon Memorial Circle was more. At Sto. Tomas yesterday morning, while 300,000 were expected there must have been 700,000.
“The Pope visited Tulingan in Tondo and Don Bosco as well as Magsaysay Barrio. But the people were a bit disappointed that he did not go down at Tulingan Center although he did at Don Bosco.
“Monseñor Velasco, spokesman and in charge of Press Relations of the Pope hierarchy, this afternoon stated over TV and Radio that the Pope’s life had been saved by a Filipino—the Philippine President.
“And Bobby Benedicto in New York called that ‘Today Philippines continues front page prominence New York Papers Stop From New York Times Quote 53 year old President Marcos pushed Pope out of assailants reach making Mendoza stumble into Mrs. Marcos and struck Mendoza with a karate chop Unquote. Newspapers also emphasize that Mendoza is not Filipino.’ The Philippine newspapers carry the statement of Mendoza saying he is positive that it was Pres. Marcos who parried his knife and prevented the killing of the Pope.
“I have repeatedly refused to make any statement on the incident. ‘The less we talk about it, the better,’ I said in an interview after the Pope’s departure…”
Drowned in all these accounts is Paul VI, who said nothing and continued his trip without making his wounds known. Had the people in the airport crowd known that Mendoza had drawn blood, they would have mobbed him. Had the Philippine government known, Mendoza would have been sentenced to death. Had avenging Bilibid inmates known, Mendoza would have been killed in jail.
Only the Paul VI’s quiet forgiveness kept Benjamin Mendoza alive, and that in itself is grace.
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